| Manoon Nhun-thong, Nop-Phitum district |
Since writing the last blog we’ve had an update from our team on the ground in Thailand, who have been working non-stop to provide help for animals affected by the recent floods. In many areas, grassland is still underwater 5 weeks since the floods began and this has meant that owners have had to track down and buy dwindling stocks of feed just to keep their precious cattle alive. The WSPA team is providing a lifeline for 1,600 cattle in the Pak Panang district, focusing on 2 villages which have suffered the worst of the floods. Here the rice fields and grazing have been totally destroyed, but it is estimated that within two weeks the soil will have dried out and the grass will have begun to grow. So to give the fields a chance to recover, WSPA will provide emergency feed for the cattle until they can go back to grazing and in Thailand one of the most readily available foodstuffs is pineapple silage, made from fruit husks!
While the animals are being fed with these emergency rations, the WSPA team has arranged for our Veterinary Emergency Response Unit (VERU) in Thailand to co-ordinate a mobile veterinary clinic. This will provide some simple but effective veterinary care such as de-worming to 1,500 cattle as well as some health and husbandry promotion to cattle owners like Manoon Nhun-thong. This farmer is completely dependent on his cattle, and so was devastated when three of his eleven cows were lost in the floods. Although the others survived, the floods swept away the bridge connecting his village to the outside world. While the villagers survived on food dropped by helicopter, their cattle began to starve and Manoon had to sell five of his remaining cattle. Now thanks to WSPA, feed will be provided to keep Manoon’s three remaining cows alive, along with the rest of the cattle in his village.
With preparedness being key to protecting vulnerable animals and their communities, we visited the local animal evacuation centre, built on higher ground as a centre for housing cattle affected by flooding. WSPA has committed to doing some capacity building work at the centre, such as ensuring there is always emergency feed in the form of hay blocks or other stored feed available if flooding strikes again.
